THIN ICE CRAWLING

Almost a decade in the making, Israeli band Soul Enema has made a most promising debut as recording artists with Thin Ice Crawling.

In some respects this album reminds of another Israeli act, namely Amaseffer. Progressive metal spiced with exotic textures of eastern origin and cinematic inspired passages is very much the name of the game for this band as well, but in the case of Soul Enema the formula is expanded. Ambient sequences close to Vangelis, inspired symphonic progressive rock and more distinctly folk, classical and medieval inspired motifs are just as much a part of the proceedings as Dream Theater school progressive metal, and blending textures, instruments and sounds from the different stylistic expressions are done with ease and with style.

The end result is a demanding album, with more twists and turns to be witnessed than in a lengthy ballet, but with the same fluency of motion and elegance as a top notch dancer. Not quite the same amount of perfection, albeit nothing musically is as flawed as the choice of moniker for this outfit.

Highly recommended to the attentive progressive metal aficionado with a soft spot for complex music of this variety.

Soul Enema is one of the most promising bands from progressive rock genre in last years. They release this year at russian label Mals the album Thin ice crawling and is , at least to me in top 5 I've heared so far from this year. The band is coming from Israel and was formed almost 10 years ago. I was very pleasent surprise about this album, the music is very innovativ and intelligent, quite original, a hard thing to find on most of the new and young bands from this genre.Combining elements from symphonic prog zone with blistering keybords, with some easter infuse arrangements to even progressive metal parts, and on top of that a solid voice coming from Irina Sherr. Brilliant ideas , great musicianship makes from this album a total winner, every piece is well developed, complex structures, quite lenghty , all pieces have over 7 min, enough room to show that Soul Enema mean bussines in this field. Very captivating keybords arrangements, who together with the guitar make a real treasure this album to listen and to have in the end in any collection. It's pretty said that this album doesn't get the attention they deseare, at least here only one review befor mine, ok rated with 5 stars, quite agree with that, but for sure this band needs a wider recognition because worth every second their music. I will gibe a solid 4 , very strong and original album, and even is quite excelelnt for sure in the end of the year thier status will remain the same, almost unknown to everybody. Recommended one of the best albums in last years and to me in top 5 from 2010.

The case of a crush that wears of after some listenings.

I really liked this album after the first listening session. Sometimes though, a crush does not developes into true love. Hence the divorce rate of those who marries after only a few weeks of knowing each other. The progressive rock advice is to let the feelings mature over a long time before, if it is true love, investing in expensive gold and diamond rings. All the important things you learn from a review in Progarchives.

Soul Enema is a new band from Israel. Their music comes across as a blend of goth rock and neo prog with some eclectic prog influences. I get a lot of Magenta vibes from some of the songs. Other songs gives me some generic female lead goth metal and rock vibes. I also believe some of the new female vocals fronted British bands sounds like this. I have only heard Panic Room of these and they are in the same alley as Soul Enema....... more or less.

This album is good though. The band sounds competent and Irina Sherr's vocals is very good. The band also softens up and broadens out their sound with some good, long symphonic prog like keyboards runs. But that is all I get from this album. I find it agreeable and good on the ears, although the crush I got did not develop into true love. The band is talented though and I have reason to believe next album may be the next big one unless they get signed by one of the German goth metal labels and develops into a Nightwish copycat. Let's hope not.

3 stars

PA never ceases to surprise me! I´m always looking for something new and I can count of finding several of them with the help of fellow reviewer. Soul Enema is one of them, even if they were not fortunate in chosing their name. This is definitly one of the most interesting things I´ve heard recently. this band from Israel has something quite rare for their debut: originality. While the several styles blended together here are quite familiar to most bands nowadays (prog metal, folk, ethnic, eastern, symphonic, gothic, etc) the results are not. It´s very hard to label them and I guess that ecletic prog is indeed the closest one I can think of to do them some justice. However, this mass of sounds could go very wrong and it doesn´t, and that´s all that matters. In fact, the music is quite fluid and although far from perfect, it is still excellent and very promising.

I really enjoyed Irina Sherr´s voice: while she does not have a very strong voice, she sounds like no one and that´s is something rare. I´m glad her delivers to be in her natural way instead of another operatic female singer of the day, which might have had gotten this band too close to dozens of other gothic metal combos. The instrumental parts are as good as, with several great duets/duels between guitars and keyboards. The latter were played by Constantin Glantz. He is the mastermind behind all this, having writing all the lyrics, most of the music and also providing the sound effects and weird male vocals. His playing is very personal, with some fine lines and origianl solos.

The band plays like seasoned professionals and they might be very big if they keep exploring those wonderful sounds the way they do. Their songwriting is superb: all the tracks are very good, helped and enhanced by the excellent production and the tasteful arrangements. Very melodic, very well done and performed. Israel now has a prog band that knows how to bring their culture to the world in a common language. I´m looking forward to hear their next releases.

Conclusion: delightful listening! A band to watch for. Final rating: 4 strong stars.

The peculiarly named SOUL ENEMA is the brainchild of the restless and productive spirit of the Russian born Constantin Glanz turned Israeli whose fascination with electric musical elements has made him a cu'ri'o'so in layering various elements together since the band's inception all the way back in 2001. Despite having formed at the turn of the millennium, here it is 2017 and Glanz has created a mere two albums with entirely different cast members. THIN ICE CRAWLING which finally emerged in 2010 is the debut that garnered international attention in the progressive rock / metal crowds for deftly packaging up ample doses of melodic rock that unfold in very experimental ways and in the process incorporate all kinds of genres and styles often leaving the listener in the dark about just how in the world to categorize this eclectic cauldron of simmering extravagance. In the days when carbon copy clones are creeping in with a quickening pace as progressive rock and metal burgeon in popularity, once in a while a rare musical creation comes along that effortlessly stands out from the crowd with a sound so distinct and original that it manages to sweep away all the competition in its ambitious and unpredictable sonic peregrination.

While melodic hard rock with outbursts of heavy distorted metal riffing are ubiquitous trademarks on THIN ICE CRAWLING with an emphasis on the catchiest yet quirky melodies possible, the other musical elements are a total grab bag as SOUL ENEMA crafts a clever path through which metal and rock mix and mingle with European folk, jazz-fusion, Middle Eastern, Oriental and other elements which gleefully play together like musical United Nations poster children that somehow flirted with the theatrical flirtatiousness of Broadway all the while juxtaposing elements in reckless manners that find doves of peace coinciding with weapons of mass destruction. At this stage SOUL ENEMA consisted of main man Constantin Glantz on keyboards, sound effects and male vocals, Max Mann on bass, Oleg Szumsky on drums and the feminine beauty of vocalist Irina Sherr whose mezzo-soprano presence adds a stabilizing effect to the beastly guitar riffs of Yevgeny Kushnir and jittery keyboard fluctuations of Glantz. In addition to the regular cast members are a few additional performers adding various ethnic percussion instruments alto sax. Although no credits are given i'm sure there are violins as well.

THIN ICE CRAWLING is a true delight to sit through from beginning to end (although an adventurous listen). Having taken several years to construct and perfect, this album delivers a string of infectious melodic developments all decorated with some of the most unorthodox twists and turns that while remaining totally logical in how they connect, never fail to surprise in how they are connected. In many ways THIN ICE CRAWLING comes off as an Aeryon type album with a perfectly balanced tightrope act of sensuality, bombast and Vaudeville type charm. At times one element may dominate, at times they alternate and at times they all play together seemingly on recess from the lessons learned from the school text books that have been ossified into the orthodox rulebook. Surprise and sense of adventure is what SOUL ENEMA playfully conjure up on this hour plus listening experience. In retrospect SOUL ENEMA makes me think of a less frenetic, more melodic and incredibly structured form of Unexpect as Irina Sherr's female vocals along when the violin led folk aspects dominate while the frenetic keyboards with the heavy guitars clearly bring Arjen Lucassen's many projects to mind.

As SOUL ENEMA emerges from their slumber seven long years later with their long-awaited followup "Of Clans And Clones And Clowns" which perfects many of the musical aspects laid down on this debut, THIN ICE CRAWLING is not to be missed as it is every bit as addictive as the followup and despite Glantz being the only connection between the two albums, there is a very cohesive feel between the two releases thus demonstrating Glantz' talents as a conductor who can eke out the potentials of his musical ensembles that he strings together quite well. As the main songwriter and arranger it shouldn't come as much of a surprise however making a large group of musicians perform so well is equivalent to herding cats in a string factory. THIN ICE CRAWLING is an utterly brilliant piece of work that dexterously agglutinates a ridiculous amounts of styles and influences ranging from the melodic hooks of ABBA to the prog workouts of King Crimson and Frank Zappa with enough classical and metal to expand the possibilities even further. My only complaint is perhaps there's too much of a good thing and a couple overlong tracks like "Unholy Ghost" and the lugubrious piano laden "Outro" (although i love the craziness after the silence) which fit in thematically don't hold my interest as much by the time i get to the end. Still though, this is a minor quibble and overall this debut album is impressive even if somewhat exhausting in one go!